Under clear, sunny skies, Atlantic drivers ran the first of two qualifying sessions in preparation for Sunday’s Cart Toyota Atlantic race at Road America, Elkart Lake, Wisconsin, today. The feature support race of the Motorola 220, Atlantic drivers descended on the daunting 4.048-mile track late afternoon, after completing a 40-minute practice session this morning.
Rookie Canadian racing ace, Jonathan Macri, piloted his NTN Bearings Swift to an 8th place qualifying position, 1.024 seconds off the pace of provisional leader David Rutledge. The session was interrupted by two red flags, the first went up with 12 minutes remaining in the session, and the second with just 5 minutes before the official end, resulting in an early finish to the session. Not good for Jonathan, who, carrying a lighter fuel load and having pitted to make a few adjustments to the car, was hoping to improve his time.
“I had a comfortable run today,” Jonathan said. The car performed well this morning, and we clocked a good 3rd place time early on in qualifying. My placing fell as the session wore on, but I was sure I could improve on my time in the last part of the session. Unfortunately, the red flags won out today. Hopefully, I will get another crack at it tomorrow, that is, unless it rains.”
Team NTN will be making some adjustments to the car in preparation for tomorrow’s qualifier. “We are working with the car in low speed corners. We haven’t found a happy medium with the handling. But, I’m sure we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
Teammates Tony Ave and Stephan C. Roy finished 3rd and 13th respectively.
Jonathan sits currently 3rd in the Rookie-of-the-Year Standings with 4 races remaining in the 2001 Atlantic season.
Report by Fedele Fortino
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